Saint Petroc Magazine

   Matins - Sub Deacon Peter reading the First Lesson                                        The Creed

                    Archbishop Hilarion preaching                                                  The Offertory Procession

                              The Peace                                                            The Great Blessing with the Sacrifice

          Archbishop Hilarion taking Communion                              Archbishop Hilarion giving the final blessing

          The Recession (reading the Last Gospel)                              Blessing the Eulogion Bread

Here are some pictures of the Divine Liturgy for Michelmas, 2004. The Rite is the English Liturgy (as authorised by the Holy Synod of Russia in 1907) at which Archbishop Hilarion of Sydney (ROCOR) presided. The Celebrant was Fr. Michael, assisted by Fr. Barry Jefferies and Sub Deacon Peter Ball, the Servers were Andrei and Vladimir Panevin. The venue was a permanent chapel in a converted house, which has room for a congregation of about thirty. So it was somewhat constricted for display of ritual. This Celebration was sung, but not High, since there is not the space. The congregation included some people from the nearby Russian (ROCOR) Parish. The size and layout of the chapel with the narrow arch connecting the nave and sanctuary, probably gives a good "feel" for a Celtic chapel in the British Isles during the first millennium. In the third last picture, the Eulogion table to the right of the chancel arch can be seen and on it a copy of the French icon of Saint John of Shanghai. This is an authentic placing of the table for both Sarum and its first millennium predecessor Liturgy. On the Altar can be seen the best plate displayed (as for a major festival) and a red pall covering a ciborium with the temporarily reserved Sacrament which Archbishop Hilarion and Fr. Michael immediately took to a lady sick in hospital.

    Matthew 6:24 - 34 is another of those readings associated with the harvest season. And of course, it is on of those very well known passages, which most of us can recite by heart.

What then, is Christ teaching here? In the harvest season country folk rejoice for having shown forethought, and for having provisioned ourselves for another year. To the city dweller, this may not mean much, but to those who live by the things that they grow and sell, the success of the harvest is vital. To communities which are closely, obviously dependent on their own produce, the lesson of the forethought of the harvest and grain store replenishment is annually learned.

Here, however, Christ is teaching a different view of life. Here he is establishing a vital component of the peculiarly Christian worldview. True Christian forethought is that which is intimately associated with dependence on the Providence of God. When the harvest is done and the stores of the principal provisions are gathered in, then comes the lesson taught by Christ's own words: That sowing and reaping and gathering into barns - in other words for city dwellers, the accumulation of savings and pension funds and insurance and property and shares, is not the chief work of the Christian's life. God's bounty, which clothes the flowers of the field by other means than their planning, is the same which is feeding and clothing us by means of our toil.

Our forethought, our planning and our work to provide for ourselves and our families is therefore, something which, for the Christian to please God, must be made with and consistent to a genuine trust in God.

    "Take no thought for", - it is worth our while to remember that this is essentially Tudor English, and fairly old fashioned usage even at the date when it was translated. The phrase is probably correctly translated today as "do not overstress yourself about". Christ is not counselling us to do nothing, or to act irresponsibly. Certainly we must with prayer, plan as best we can for ourselves and our families. This injunction however, must be related to the opening lines of the passage: "No man can serve two masters........Ye cannot serve God and mammon." If we become obsessed with our gaining of 'sufficient', then we will be led to pursuing far more than is merely sufficient - as a precaution. Fairly soon the "precaution" becomes an end in itself. We are serving mammon now, not God. That is why it is easier for a camel or hawser to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man (read very rich) to enter into the kingdom of Heaven. The rich man has become so obsessed with the getting and keeping of his precautionary wealth, that he cannot truly trust or serve God, no matter how often he goes to church. First, he must divest himself of the anxiety - which is lack of trust in God - which led him into the pursuit of wealth. The same applies to us if we wish to begin to be true Christians. We may plan - but always with the proviso in the forefront of our minds "God willing". We may work hard and make provision, but always taking care not to allow our work and care to overwhelm us or to become our obsession.

    What provision we make for ourselves is by God's leave. To presume on that and to tell Him that we do not trust Him by our obsessively pursuing precautionary "safety" of wealth is hardly the behaviour of the genuine Christian Believer.

Scoresby, Victoria, Saturday 5th of June. A meeting of Tasmanian, Australian, New Zealand Orthodox Western Rite representatives, endorsed by both the Antiochian and Russian Archbishops, was held to discuss the way forward for Western Rite Orthodoxy. The meeting began with the Divine Liturgy at Saint Cuthbert's Antiochian Western Rite Parish. Fr. Michael from Saint Petroc Monastery celebrated, assisted by Fr. Barry from Saint Laurence, Launceston. Fr. Geoffrey Harvey and Fr. John Whiteside were in the choir, the music was provided by choristers from Saint Cuthberts. After a lunch provided by the parishioners of Saint Cuthberts, the meeting was opened with short remarks given by Fr. Geoffrey Harvey and Fr. Michael. The meeting format was informal, with all those present participating in the discussion. Mr. Stephen McRae (ROCOR, Brighton) made an impassioned plea for the Western Rite to shed the ethnic associations and adopt the national identity. A number of other speakers endorsed Mr. McRae's remarks. Several older speakers from ethnic parishes, said that they regarded the Western Rite as a means of stemming the drift of young third and fourth generation Orthodox away from the Eastern Rite churches, towards protestantism or Roman Catholicism. In general, two clear messages came out of the meeting: 1. A requirement for the localisation of Western Rite in place of being too closely identified with any ethnic tag. 2. A requirement that Western Riters from the two jurisdictions should closely cooperate with each other.

Clontarf, Western Australia, Sunday 13th of June. Fr. Michael celebrated the Divine Liturgy at Saint Anthony's, during which he Baptised Robert Andrews (Patron: Saint Rupert of Salzburg +718). Due to the fact that there was no font suitable for adult Baptism, the congregation (mixed Antiochian and ROCOR) processed from the church across the lawns, singing psalms and led by Robert in his long Baptismal robe and carrying a Cross, to the Canning River and Robert was Baptised there, his sponsors were Mr. Hugh NanKivell (GOArchA) and Mr. David Ford (ROCOR). Upon return from the river to the Church, Robert was Chrismated and immediately took his place in the Choir for the Liturgy. After the Liturgy, a number of the congregation including the newly Baptised, joined Fr. Michael for lunch at the Mount Arthur Pub.

Robert Andrews

Belgrade, Wednesday, 29th September: Upon the invitation of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, a meeting was held at the Patriarchate between the Patriarch Pavle and a delegation of the Union des Associations Cultuelles Orthodoxes de Rite Occidental (UACORO) - a Western Rite Orthodox community in France. UACORO is the linear descendent of the community begun through the efforts of Vladimir Lossky and Evgraph Kovalevsky in Paris in the late 1920s. It was canonically constituted by a Moscow Ukase in 1936 as the Orthodox Church of France. Direction after the war fell to Archbishop (Saint) John (Maximovitch) when he was Archbishop of Paris. He consecrated Fr. Evgraph as Bishop Jean-Nectaire of Saint-Denys. The church was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Romanian Patriarchate, which in 2001 deposed the ruling bishop Germain for gross infringement of church rules. Subsequently UACORO was formed from those parishes refusing to remain under the desposed Germain. His Holiness Patriarch Pavle together with His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, and His Grace Bishop Luka of Western Europe received the delegation. The UACORO delegation included Archipretre Jean Pierre Pahud, Fr. Maxime Jourdant, and M. Guy Treca. The Serbian Orthodox Diocese members included Presbyter Jovan Georgievski, parish priest of Paris, and Mr. Kosta Hristic, lay vice-president of the Executive Council of the Diocese of Western Europe. At the beginning of the meeting the UACORO delegation expressed the desire to be brought under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church within the framework of the Diocese of Western Europe, and by uniting with the Serbian Orthodox Church to preserve their liturgical tradition. Patriarch Pavle indicated his understanding of the difficult situation of the UACORO community of ten parishes sprerad throughout France. At the conclusion of the discussions held over several days, it was decided to form a special committee of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church to report to the next meeting of the Holy Synod.

Colebrook, Tasmania, Tuesday 5th of October. Archbishop Hilarion and Fr. Michael visited Bernard Hughes-Gage at his workshop in Colebrook. After much discussion over morning tea, as to the requirements, Bernard brought a log from his store of 2,000 year old Huon Pine and cut a piece large enough for a Blessing Cross to be carved, and presented it to Archbishop Hilarion.

Fr. Michael, Archbishop Hilarion (holding the wood), Bernard Hughes-Gage in front of Bernard's barn-workshop.

Scoresby 25th October,  Fr. Geoffrey Harvey of Saint Cuthbert's announced that every Thursday evening until 2 December 2004, Subdeacon Jeremy Davis, who is visiting from the United States, where he has just graduated with a Masters of Theology from Saint Vladimir's Seminary, will be leading a Bible Study group at St. George's Church, 28 Shaftesbury Parade, Thornbury (off High Street), in the Church hall at 8.15pm.

Scoresby 25th October, The Saint Cuthbert's/St. Nicholas/St. George's joint Parish Soup Kitchen charity programme is now underway, primarily operating in the North Melbourne and Collingwood areas. Contact Fr. Geoffrey for details.

Scoresby 25th October, St Cuthbert's services, celebrated by Fr Geoff Harvey and Fr. Deacon John Whiteside, are detailed at the Parish website:  http://www.the-way.org.au

Hobart 27th October,  A meeting will be held at the University Chaplaincy on Sunday afternoon at 13.00, to discuss an advertising programme for Western Rite Orthodoxy.




 

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